Sudan People's Liberation Movement

The Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) is a conservative political party in South Sudan, founded in 1983 by John Garang. The party was the political wing of the Sudan People's Liberation Army, which fought for independence from Sudan during the Second Sudanese Civil War of 1983-2005, and it believed that the Christian and animist south of the country should form a new country that was not to be subjected to sharia law under the northern government. In 2005, the SPLM made an agreement with the Sudanese government and gained representation in the Sudanese government; in 2011, it succeeded in pushing for an independence referendum. South Sudan became independent from Sudan, and the SPLM became the new ruling party. On 15 December 2013, the South Sudanese Civil War broke out after SPLM leader Salva Kiir Mayardit attempted to arrest Vice-President Riek Machar and several other opposition politicians, accusing them of plotting a coup against him. Machar and other dissidents formed the SPLM-IO, while the main faction of the SPLM supported Kiir's authoritarianism.